WEBVTT - Enter The Man Cave 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:04.240 This is, he said, a Yaviho with Eric Winter and 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:05.840 Rodlin fantaz. 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:09.720 Hi. Right, everybody, welcome to another episode of he said, 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:12.760 he said, because my wife is not here again, but 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:15.319 since she's gone, I wanted to bring in a friend 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.640 of mine who shares a similar passion of mine as well. 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:20.160 We're going to go to sort in the man cave 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:24.000 of watches, which is one of my collectible passions. But 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.640 this is also a man with a completely other background 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.920 before he got into watches, Nick Ferrell, who and I 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.080 can't wait to dive into more about his journey which 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.519 led him to his current passion now. But worked with 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.879 the government for many, many many years, and that in 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.400 turn led to a career in now you know, bringing 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.440 a vintage watches to the forefront of everybody's life in 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.000 a big way. And even on my show The Rookie, 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:54.280 I wear one of Nick's watches, which is a vintage 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.000 when he got back he got for me for Bradford 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:58.440 to wear on the show. We can talk about that. 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:00.000 But Nick, welcome to the podcast. 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.440 Hey, Eric, thanks a lot, thanks for having me on here. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.080 Can't absolutely I'm excited. No, Nick, let's let's just dive 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.119 back into your past a bit. So you're a young 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.320 man the first career. Did you ever think I'm gonna 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:14.920 go down the path of working for the government. That 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:16.360 was where you wanted to be? 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:16.840 Were you? 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:18.480 You were military as well? Am I am? 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.200 I correct, not active military, but I was employed as 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.399 a civilian with the primary defense, which I'll get into 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:26.640 in a second. But no, I mean for me, like 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.040 my father owned a construction company and he has always 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.119 wanted me to do business. And at a very young age, 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.600 I showed some aptitude for business, like random aside. When 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:39.720 I was in elementary school, my nickname was the candy 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.760 Man because I would go my candy at like Costco 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:44.440 or what have you, and I would sell it to 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.440 kids for five cents under what the vending machines charged. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.600 So you know, I I business mind. 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:52.960 I try, and that's that's what I had in mind. 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:55.800 And so you know, through high school that's what I 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.720 was doing. And then I started undergrading University of Maryland, 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.440 and I was a businessman, and I, to be honest, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.840 quickly became bored with it. And you know, I started 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.240 I don't even remember what the aha moment was, but 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:12.160 I started getting interested in like international affairs, foreign affairs, 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.160 what have you. You know, I'd always been interested in 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.080 military history and things like that, so you know, I 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:21.640 took some classes I and then I picked up a second. 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.480 I was like a I was there for business, but 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.760 I also did like military content, history concentration, so I 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.960 you know, and it's just like one thing led to another, 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.480 and I decided I didn't want to do business anymore, 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:35.760 and I wanted to work for the government, but I 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.560 didn't know in what capacity. So the one thing I knew, 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.040 you know, I gotta I gotta make myself attractive, So 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.560 I need to learn a language. So ironically, I chose 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.240 between Russian and Arabic. And at the time, and I'm 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.680 dating myself, this is the late nineties, I was thinking, well, 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.519 you know, Russia, there are ally there our friend, do 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:01.880 I really need to learn Russian color very ironically, if 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.320 anyone follows the news, And so I chose Arabic. And 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.800 you know, I went to study abroad at the America 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.720 University in Cairo, and I was there fall of two 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.800 thousand and one, which so I was there for nine 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.280 to eleven. So you know, I hit the ground two 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.320 weeks later, nine to eleven pops off. It was just crazy. 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.920 I remember there was no really CNN presence in the 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.640 Middle East. It was it was actually dubbed over in Arabic, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.919 and my Arabic was not good then, so I had 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:32.640 no idea what was going on. The Internet was down, 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.480 I couldn't get a hold of anyone in the United States. 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.720 I'm from the DC area, so everything was mass chaos, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.360 as you can imagine. So you know, that was really 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.960 eye opening for me. So from that, you know, I 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.280 got my degree. I got a degree in history, and 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.600 I got a degree in political science, and I spent 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.040 a year at the America University in Cairo, again learning 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.840 Arabic intentsive Arabic, and then I spent semester American University 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.200 in Beirut in Lebanon with the same goal, learning Arabic. 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:03.360 And I just started applying to places. 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.040 I mean, and it's not just you didn't just have 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.160 a regular government job. I mean, you've been in the 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.400 situation room, you've been in the in the heart of 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.320 you know, government affairs, and I know you've spoken on 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.760 this a lot, but I would love to hear more. 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.720 I mean, you obviously rose to the top pretty quickly. 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.839 You got yourself involved with I mean, the top people 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.320 in our government when you're in the situation room. Talk 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:27.200 to me about that, because that's always been fascinating to me, 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.760 what it's like in the situation room when you're seeing 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.359 things go down in real time with the real decision 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.360 makers of the country one hundred percent. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.920 And you know, so NNGA you had to do. I 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.600 started working at National Juice Basal Intelligence Agency, which is 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.880 the satellites, the surveillance, the spy satellites Inmagury looking at 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.440 other countries military and we had to do a twenty 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.760 four to seven ops rotation at an op center. And 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:50.960 that is the White House Situation Room, as you as 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.400 you just got into, and you know, I feel like 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.640 I was very lucky, you know, right place, right time. 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.640 I had the Arabic which obviously helped. I had done 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.040 a lot of high level briefing to include the direct 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:06.440 to the director of NNGA on various things. At that point, 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.800 I was covering the Middle East, and as we know 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.680 after nine eleven, Middle East was huge in America's foreign policy. 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.200 So in the White House Situation Room, which is a 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.159 you know, a non partisan position, I started under the 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.000 GW Bush administration, and I was there for the first 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.800 two years of the Obama administration. So you know what 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.400 the situation room is is again twenty four to seven. 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.880 You know, op center and its main customer is the 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.480 President of the United States. Doesn't matter what party. You need 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.080 to keep them apprized of everything that's going on in 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.159 the world, breaking news, especially that they're going to have 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.159 to react to, and whether that reaction is you know, 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.360 anything as they need to put out a statement to 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.120 very drastic is in you know, we need to raise 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.240 the alert level for our military forces based overseas. That's 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.320 everything I mean. So you're working shifts, twelve hour days. 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.520 It's a small team. There's not many teams. The teams 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.640 are are they're all branches of the military, all branch 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:06.000 of the intelligence community, their homeland security, it's probably in 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:10.480 Homeland Security, CIA, FBI. 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:13.800 The all the top general everybody, right. 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.960 Everyone is there and they take what you know, it's 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.159 been said. You know, it's the best and brightest. I again, humbly, 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.120 I think I was right place, right time. Not a 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.480 lot of people at n GA knew this thing even existed. 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.800 That changed after I did my tour because I put 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.360 them on blast. I said, your products are being used, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.440 I'm briefing the president on them, et cetera. And they 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:33.080 got a lot more people applying to it, which is 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.120 great because you want the best talent there. I saw 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.200 a lot of crazy stuff while I was there, anything 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.680 from you know, I was. I was there for stuff 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:44.640 like you know, two thousand and nine, we had what 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.920 we call Snowmageddon, which is this massive snowstorm hit the 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.400 DC area and I'm I'm bringing this story up because 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.640 it goes back to the to you know, the rookie 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.159 if you will, to police and I had to go 0:06:58.200 --> 0:06:59.840 pick up other people on my team that live further. 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:01.719 Oh yeah, I lived walking distance to the White House. 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:03.360 So it was great. I walked. I never seen DC 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.240 more peaceful, four feet of snow. It was great. But 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:08.520 they were like, you need to pick up other members 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:14.160 of your team. Here's this, this this special service police 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.560 crews are SUV. You need to go pick up your team. 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.040 And I'm like, well, there's is there anyone come with me? 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:20.880 Like no, it's all you And I'm like wait what. 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.080 So I'm like, I've been in the snow, you know. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:24.400 I had to try the lights, but I meant your 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:25.960 noel was looking because I don't want to get in trouble. 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.200 But you know, I'm driving the snow before we'll drive in, 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.200 you know, picking up other members of my team. Because 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.560 you have to be there no matter what, no matter 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.640 what's going on, that seat has to be staffed. 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:37.440 Let me ask you this with the situation room, which 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.600 is if you know, again, anybody would love to be 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:40.960 a fly on the wall and that situation, you know, 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.760 just to understand what's going on. So everybody is there, 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:45.680 like you said, to service the president, I mean, I 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:47.360 mean beIN lot and they talk about that when he 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.600 was captured and everybody's there in the situation room, all 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:54.480 these major events are taking place. Do people actually give 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:58.360 resistance to maybe what the president is thinking he wants 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.680 to do in the moment and he has to go 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.120 with his gut and decide. Note you're wrong, you know, 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.119 head general of you know army that you know navy. 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.560 Where I'm gonna do it my way? Or is it 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.440 pretty peaceful conversation or does it get really heated? 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.600 Oh it's all about for sure. I mean, if you're 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.240 what we call a duty officer in the situation room, 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.040 which is what I was and then the head is 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:23.800 the senior duty officer, the head of the watch team. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:26.600 Your only mission there is to provide information to someone 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.920 like you're either being proactive, like for instance, like when 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:33.480 this happened during Christmas, the underwear bomber, if you will, 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.000 and that was December twenty fifth, two thousand and nine. 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.880 You know, something pops off, we're getting alerts. We already 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:40.760 know there's gonna be high level interest, so we're getting 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:42.960 the who, what, win, or why how. We're drafting a 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:45.600 one page what we call intel note to brief people 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.520 on and then they take the information that we found 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:50.959 and they make decisions based on that. So we're not 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.560 offering any sort of advice, but they're making decisions based 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:55.600 on what we're finding. So we got to make sure 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.280 it's well sourced. We got to make sure, you know, 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.800 we have to kind of anticipate the questions they're going 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:04.480 to ask and have that information ready. Just a you know, 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.280 a real quick story. When the Fort Hood shooting went 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:09.880 down in November two thousand and nine, which the mass 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.280 shoot againstant killed, thirteen wounded, thirty. I'm on that day. 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.160 The head of the situation room comes in, says nick 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.240 I need you to reach out. You're gonna make this 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.400 one page document and we're going to brief the president. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.000 I was like, okay, sorry, how much time do I have. 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.760 They're like, you have nine minutes and I'm like really, 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.600 He's like okay. Fifteen fifteen minutes later, what we would 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:30.319 call an ad the Homeland and Securities are And that 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:32.360 was John Brennan at the time. He later went on 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.040 to be Director of CIA. Comes in, takes the paper 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.960 that I worked on, reaching out to all my contacts 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.360 within the primitent Defense, et cetera to get as many 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.520 facts as I can, takes it up to the Oval, 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:45.600 and briefs the president on it. With with just that 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.840 fifteen minutes to the second, you get a lot of 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.280 things like that, But you are flying the wall. You 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.160 do get to see And I knew someone that was 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.080 in there for the first year of the last administration, 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.640 which is very, you know, very contentious time. During the 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.120 Trump administration, there was a lot going on. Anytime you 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.679 get a new administration in it can be contentious if 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.440 they're new to power and they don't really know what's 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.120 going on. But there was he he told me some 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:14.680 interesting stories. I will say that, so there's a lot, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.040 there's a there's there's the spectrum is open. The possibilities 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.400 are endless as far as like there's person there's big personalities, 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.160 and it doesn't matter who's an office, there's always gonna 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.120 be like Rom and Manuel. If you remember are well 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:32.400 are E Manuel from uh was exactly Rom was his brother. 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:33.840 That was a personality. 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.800 He was in there during the Obama administration. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.480 He was the first chief of staff. Like minor actions 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.160 with him went from straight up I sort of got 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.120 this is Ari Manuel like that kind of stuff to 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:47.480 just very pleasant, Hey, how's the family, how the kids. 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:49.360 It depends on the stress of the moment. 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:00.640 Let's jump to the next chapter of your life. So 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.719 you serve with the government for you know, how many 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:05.840 years were you all. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.480 Together as seventeen, seventeen or eighteen? 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.880 I think, wow, so an amazing run with the government. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:16.520 Then you have this passion for vintage watches that's probably 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.320 been brewing this entire time, even while you're working for 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.520 the government, and you're seeing all these different watches that 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.120 all these different military officials and everybody's wearing, and I 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.240 mean you're in encyclopedia when it comes to watches. We 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.040 sat down, had lunch, and it was fascinating all the 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:31.960 stuff that goes into watches. And you know, I think 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:33.600 I spoken about on the podcast before. It's like one 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.839 of my guilty pleasures are watches. I've always been fascinated 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.520 by them, whether it's vintage or current. I have a 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.560 little bit of a collection myself because I just enjoy it. 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.360 I enjoy it. What gave you the confidence to sort 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.240 of leave that world start your own business with DC 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.839 Vintage Watches and go in, you know, be all in 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.679 on that space sourcing, finding these watches, refurbishing them, getting 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.280 them ready for sale, and building a business around it. 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.240 Yeah, it's not just you with a guilty pleasure. I 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.640 mean after the pandemic when everyone was a lot of 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.319 people were sitting at home and they had time, a 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.760 lot of people got into it. It's been huge amongst 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.199 like work spanning in the women's market because I think 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.280 that they're neglected. I think that's fifty percent of the 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.960 customer base. But anyway, no, I mean I had been 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:20.839 huge into watches. My dad got me into them in 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.640 high school and in twenty twelve I started DC Vintage 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.400 Watches as a side hustle. So I'm doing the government, 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.520 I'm doing all that stuff. You know. I wasn't that 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:31.040 long after I got out of the situation room, I 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:32.760 set this up. I had a little more time, thankfully, 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.200 and you know, fast forward to twenty eighteen. I moved 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.360 out to Los Angeles. My wife is a television producer, 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.760 so we came out here, like she has. I wanted 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:45.640 to give her the advantage. We had done my career 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.480 for a while and wanted to have her chance. I 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.840 was still working for the government. I was on loan 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.880 for Department of Defense. We were doing logistics for embassies 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.960 and nothing sexy. It was just very boring whatever. But 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:58.800 it got us out here to LA. And as soon 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:00.480 as I got to LA, I started doing what you 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.480 do anytime you start a new job. You start networking. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.440 You start seeing here's here's influence, here's not. Here's who's 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.160 in the watches, who's not, you know, and I started 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.720 reaching out to, you know, actors that like yourself, that 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.480 were huge in the watches. Daniel day Kim, which I 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:17.960 considered to be a good friend of mine, is an 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.120 amazing individual. He's huge into watches. He was one of 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.280 the first people I developed a friendship with out here 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.560 and it just went from there and it got to 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.600 the point where I had done original research to figure 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.040 out what the watch was that Bruce Lee wore in 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:32.760 that martial arts legend. 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:34.319 Talk about that watch, because I say, I know, I 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:35.839 see the sticker on your wall or the picture on 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:37.679 your wall behind of Bruce And we talked a bit 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.040 about that. What's the famous that people should know that 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:41.360 the most famous Bruce Lee watch? 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.800 Bruce Lee? So it's it's nineteen seventies Siko six one 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.600 three nine dash six zero one zero and it's a 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.360 black dial on it. Beautiful watch. But there's there. I 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.559 found all these pictures with him wearing this watch, did 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.640 all my detective work whatever, So you know, I felt 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.640 confident from that, and I publicized it and one of 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.560 my customers happened to be a writer for GQ magazine, 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.320 and I reached out to him and I said, you know, 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.520 it was a natural segue. Hey, how's the watch? How 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.480 how are you enjoying it? Everything good? I have this idea, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.760 here's this watch. You know, I found all these actors 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.800 like will Young Lee, Ronnie Comedian, Ronnie Chiang, et cetera. 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:26.840 You know, our mutual friend Nick Nonzales. Uh. You know, 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.320 actors are into it. How about this. I can introduce 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:32.680 you to some of these these these actors that are 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.480 wearing the watch. You can interview them, I can give 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.800 some background. We can do an article because he'd written 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.960 in Watches. He's a fashion writer for GQ, and he 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.200 took it to his editor. The editor loved it. They 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.960 published it, and you know, obviously, you know, I do 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.160 interest here. It led to some good business, but I 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.080 also wanted to get the message out there's this cool watch. 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:50.800 Yeah. 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.560 Based on that in the previous the experience I have 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.480 with the government, the doing the research, the sourcing stuff, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.840 you know, making sure it's good sources, the high level 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.640 briefing the people to include you know, the vice president 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:05.840 of both administrations of the president, et cetera. I had 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.880 that competence to build these relationships. And you know, seeing 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.040 this is before the pandemic, mind you, and seeing businesses 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.080 kicking off, it was able. When my time was up 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.720 with the tour that I had out here, i left 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.680 government and you know, and I haven't looked back quite frankly, 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.440 and it's been intensely rewarding because every day I get 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.560 to talk with people like yourself that are you know, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:30.840 you just dork out and watches. I love it, and 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.320 it's it's I'm getting paid to do something that I 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.920 enjoy highly. And since then I've done all this research 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.720 to find these other watches, like you know, the Special 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:43.000 Forces guys war like Military Assistants Command Vietnam Sallie's Observation 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.520 group that watched that. We got you for the Rookie. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:47.600 Yeah, I was gonna talk about that because my watch. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.920 People commented as soon as you know, the season started 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:51.520 last year, they're like, Tim has a new watch. Why 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.520 does Tim have a new watch? And you know, we 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.040 never were able to get fully into it, but talk 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.200 a bit more. I mean that watch was from Vietnam. 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.120 That's what I love, is like vintage watches, aren't you just 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.000 It's not just finding a watch that's out there. A 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.320 lot of these watches have insane stories. We'll go back 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:06.880 to Bruce Lee's watching a second, But the watch I 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.200 wear on the Rookie was a watch worn by a 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.080 soldier in Vietnam. Not just any soldier, but a Special 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.320 Forces soldier. It's got a compass on it. It's an 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.160 incredible watch. And when he when Nick you know, got 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.560 it to my propmaster and it was presented to me. 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.240 It's in you know, the with the authentic band. That 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.560 soldier's initials of writing was on the band, which blows 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:30.360 my mind. You know, I'm wearing and I loved it. 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.720 Because Tim's military past, there's obviously a real character placement here, 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.760 but it's that watch has a history and it's it's 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.440 seen more than I've ever seen in an intense way 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.240 in its lifetime. Talk a little bit more about that watch, 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:44.080 just for a quick second. 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.520 And I remember our initial conversations where You're like, well, 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:47.800 let me tell you, let me tell you a bit 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.080 about Tim's character. I was like, hold on, I'm familiar, 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.560 trust me. I watched it. I watched the rookie I 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.160 know what I'm looking for here, and then we we 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.160 I loved it because we hit around those ideas that 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:58.760 would fit your character the watch. 0:16:58.840 --> 0:16:59.000 Yeah. 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.360 So the watch itself. Uh, they were again the Studies 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.800 of Observation group. They were the soldiers. They were mostly 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.440 Green Berets, but they were running behind enemy lines and 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.480 the adjoit in the adjacent countries calling in air strikes 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.560 on what was you know, uh, the colloc return beade 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.200 hoo Chi men trail that was running all these resupplies 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.359 from China into Northern Vietnam and eventually in South Vietnam. 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:23.720 So they were, you know, they were hitting these logistics 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.679 trails to stop that supply from coming in. But these guys, 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.479 I mean, this is I mean, you have special forces 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.840 these days that do crazy, amazing stuff, but back then, 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.080 they didn't have all these you know, satellites were in 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.960 their infancy, didn't have any of this this tactical support 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.479 for these at today. And these guys were just like 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:46.879 they're back. They're inserting with teams with like five people 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.320 on this team. They're asserting low level insertion with helicopters 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.520 or really high outs, opening halo jumps, parachuting into the countries, 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.639 and a lot of them died, but they're you know, 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.040 they're behind any lines, are surrounded by whole wretch of 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.480 menster divisions of North Vietnamese Army regulars. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:05.960 They're badasses. And that's where my watch came from. People 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.600 from from the rookie fans that watch Lived is Life. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.119 How do you find a watch? Tell me how a 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.200 watch like that goes from a man's wrist in Vietnam 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.159 and you know, we don't know. I guess if that 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.520 that soldier lived or or didn't live, I guess are 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:22.280 they well? 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.640 And again, all the watches we find aren't necessarily from 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.879 their risk, but some are. And if we got it 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:28.280 from a wrist, they made it back. 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:29.840 They made it back, Okay, it wasn't just like they 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:31.560 were brought back. And so they made it back. And 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.399 that watch was signed like it had the writing of 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.400 the soldier on the band, so that one was at 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.879 the war. So did that soldier eventually just sell it 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.000 off at some point in time to make some money, 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:42.719 and it made its way on the market. 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.320 What you see now is you see a lot of 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:46.159 estate sales. 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:47.520